The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team served search warrants at several residences in Phelan, Ca. on Thursday, June 21, 2018. High Desert areas such as Lucerne Valley, Newberry Springs and Phelan, have become a hot spot for marijauana cultivation. Although the drug has recently become legal, it is still illegal to grow with the intent to sell. (Sarah Alvarado for The Sun)

Yes, you can still get busted for some cannabis-related offenses in California. But now that recreational use is legal, the number of such arrests is dropping quickly.

Those are two takeaways from a crime report issued this week by California Attorney General Xavier Bacerra. The data showed a huge drop in marijuana-related arrests last year, with all such arrests falling by 56 percent and felony arrests down 74 percent.

Overall, from 2016 to 2017, the number of people in California facing possible incarceration, hefty legal fees and criminal records as a result of cannabis crimes fell by nearly 8,000.

Those findings pleased people who two years ago worked to pass Proposition 64.

“Overall, I think it bodes well for marijuana legalization in California,” said Jolene Forman, an attorney with the Drug Policy Alliance, which backed the marijuana legalization effort. “It shows… that law enforcement resources are not being wasted on marijuana arrests anymore and can be used on more serious offenses.”

But Bacerra’s new Crime in California report — expected to track annual crime statistics statewide — also shows that the rules for cannabis production and consumption still can lead to contact with law enforcement.

In all, 6,065 people were busted for marijuana-related crimes last year in California, a figure that included 2,086 felony arrests.

The data also shows shows that people of color are still being disproportionately arrested for cannabis-related offenses, much as they were prior to the passage of Prop. 64.

Non-Hispanic white people accounted for 24 percent of marijuana felony arrests in 2017, according to the report, while Hispanic people accounted for 40 percent of felony arrests and black people accounted for 21 percent. Those arrest numbers counter other data, which suggests all three populations consume and sell cannabis at about the same rate.

Proposition 64 reduced penalties for just about every crime involving cannabis. Possession with intent to sell was downgraded from felony to a misdemeanor, for example, while transporting up to an ounce of weed went from a misdemeanor to fully legal for anyone 21 and older.

But it’s still a felony to use minors to sell cannabis or to repeatedly grow large amounts of marijuana without a license, and advocates say they never expected marijuana-related arrests would drop to zero under the new law.

“That’s like saying no one is arrested for alcohol anymore because alcohol is legal,” said Dale Gieringer, director of the advocacy group California NORML.

Sign up for The Localist, our daily email newsletter with handpicked stories relevant to where you live. Subscribe here.

They also didn’t expect systemic problems with racially biased policing to be cured by legalizing marijuana, Forman said, pointing to figures from other legal-weed states that indicate a similarly persistent trend. Still, she said the impact of the injustice is getting smaller, with far fewer people of all races arrested for cannabis under the new laws.

“We don’t get nearly as many calls from people in legal trouble as we used to,” Gieringer said.

Policing experts suggested lessened penalties for cannabis-related crime is a key factor in the decline in arrests.

“Part of the explanation… is simply that cops are making less drug-related arrests because the sentences have been so reduced,” said Shaun Rundle, deputy director for the California Peace Officers’ Association.

“If someone is going to be out of jail six months and back on the streets — and six months is even unlikely these days — then the agencies need to divert their time and resources to the most dangerous and violent crime prevention.”

Based on what’s happened in states that legalized recreational cannabis before California, Forman said we can expect a smaller but steady declines in marijuana arrests in the years to come.

Kevin Sabet, president of the organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposed Prop. 64, said the new data was easy to predict. He called it “as surprising as saying the robbery arrest rate decreased after we legalized robbery.”

“The much bigger issue is with public use, (driving under the influence) and black market marijuana rates, which this statistic does not touch on,” Sabet added.

Peace Officer representative Rundle said cops remain wary of cannabis-related DUIs, which have yet to be sharply defined under state law.

“We’re concerned that the more you lessen the sentences for cannabis possession and consumption, the more prevalent it is going to be,” he said.

But marijuana advocates saw a win there, too, in the data released this week.

The report shows overall DUI arrests continued their steady decline in 2017, dropping 5 percent from the prior year and down 30 percent since 2012.

“Marijuana legalization in California is still very new,” Forman said, “but these early indications are generally very positive.”

Brooke Edwards Staggs covers state and federal politics through an Orange County lens, plus the politics, business and culture of cannabis in California. Journalism has led Staggs to a manhunt in Las Vegas, a zero gravity flight over Queens and a fishing village in Ghana. The Big Bear native is addicted to education. She earned her bachelors degree in English from California Baptist University, then got her master's in education as she taught high school English in the Inland Empire. After four years in the classroom, she left in 2006 to be a student again herself, earning a masters degree in journalism from New York University while interning and freelancing for a variety of publications. She sees journalism as another form of teaching, helping readers make informed decisions and better understand the world around them. Staggs spent five years as a staff writer then city editor at the Daily Press in Victorville. She joined the Orange County Register in January 2013, covering several Orange County communities before taking on the marijuana beat in February 2016 and the politics beat in April 2019. That work has earned her first-place wins in the Best of the West, California Journalism Awards and Orange County Press Club competitions. On occasion, she also teaches community college and ghostwrites nonfiction books. Staggs loves dancing and new adventures. She hates water slides and injustice. If she doesn’t get right back to you, there’s a good chance she’s sitting with her DJ husband on a plane or train or boat destined for somewhere – anywhere – they’ve never been.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.